MS-900 Practice Question: Describe Microsoft 365 pricing, licensing, and support
A user is unable to access Microsoft Teams because the tenant's subscription has expired. The administrator wants to restore access as quickly as possible while minimizing costs. What should the administrator do?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume a new subscription is always required after expiration, overlooking the built-in grace period and reactivation feature that Microsoft provides to minimize disruption and cost.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Reactivate the expired subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center
The Microsoft 365 admin center provides a 'Reactivate subscription' option for expired subscriptions, typically within a grace period (e.g., 30 days for most paid subscriptions). This restores access immediately without requiring a new purchase, minimizing both cost and downtime. The administrator can simply navigate to Billing > Your products, select the expired subscription, and click Reactivate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Extend the trial period for 30 additional days
Why it's wrong here
Trial extensions are only available for active trials, not expired paid subscriptions; Microsoft grants a single 30-day trial extension only when the trial is still in its initial active period from the Microsoft 365 admin center's Billing > Your products page. Once a paid subscription has expired, the provisioning state is no longer trial, and an extension cannot be applied retroactively to restore a tenant that has already lost Teams access.
- ✗
Wait for the subscription to automatically renew within 30 days
Why it's wrong here
Recurring billing in Microsoft 365 is processed before the subscription end date; if payment fails or the term ends, the subscription enters a 30-day grace period and does not automatically renew itself. Merely waiting for a renewal after expiration is ineffective because no background process re-instates an expired subscription; you must either reactivate it or repurchase it. The admin must take explicit action to resume service, and this action cannot be deferred.
- ✓
Reactivate the expired subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center
Why this is correct
Reactivating in the Microsoft 365 admin center (navigate to Billing > Your products, select the expired subscription, then choose Reactivate) is the correct action because it is available during the grace period and the disabled state, so the original subscription ID, licenses, and configured tenant data are preserved. This restores Teams access immediately after the outstanding balance is paid, without re-assigning licenses or recreating users, making it faster and less disruptive than a new purchase.
- ✗
Purchase a new subscription and assign licenses to users
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing a new subscription requires selecting a new plan, completing an order, and then manually assigning each product license to affected users, which is slower and more expensive because a new term starts and the previous subscription remains separate. It also risks licensing gaps if existing groups or shared mailboxes are not immediately provisioned, and it does not simply recover the expired one. The existing subscription's reactivation path is the intended recovery mechanism and eliminates these extra steps.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Billing and Subscription Management
Key term
Microsoft 365 admin center
The Microsoft 365 admin center is a web-based portal where IT administrators manage users, subscriptions, security, and settings for an organization's Microsoft 365 services.
Key term
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that integrates chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration into a single workspace, primarily used within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the MS-900 exam.